1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a non-aqueous ink composition for ink jet recording and an ink jet recording method in which the non-aqueous ink composition is used.
2. Related Art
In the past, an ink jet recording method in which images are recorded on an absorbent recording medium such as paper using fine ink droplets ejected from a nozzle in a recording head was known. Aqueous ink containing water as a principal solvent was widely distributed as ink used in the above-described ink jet recording method.
Meanwhile, the ink jet recording method has been used for recording on a variety of recording media in a variety of fields. In particular, from a viewpoint of the competition with printing methods in which images are recorded on a recording medium having a low absorbability, non-aqueous ink containing little water as a solvent has been developed instead of the aqueous ink of the related art.
For example, International Publication No. 2004/007626 discloses an oil-based ink composition for ink jet recording which contains a colorant, polyoxyethylene glycol dialkyl ether and a lactone-based solvent. The above-described oil-based ink composition is suitable for printing on a recording medium made of vinyl chloride or the like and enables the printing of images that are excellent in terms of print quality, printing stability, print drying properties, and the storage stability of ink.
In addition, JP-A-2005-330298 discloses an oil-based pigment ink composition for ink jet recording which contains a pigment and a (poly)propylene glycol derivative. According to the above-described oil-based pigment ink composition, printing on a recording medium made of vinyl chloride or the like is possible, and it is also possible to print images that can bear outdoor environments.
However, there was a problem in that, depending on the type or combination of solvents contained in the above-described non-aqueous ink, the drying speed or fixability of ink attached to a recording medium significantly degraded. When the drying speed of ink is low (that is, the drying property is poor), components (particularly, colorants such as pigments) contained in the ink can agglomerate, and therefore there is a case in which agglomeration variation occurs in images. In addition, when the fixability of ink is poor, the abrasion resistance of images recorded on a recording medium is impaired.
Even if a solvent having an effect that improves the fixability of the ink can be selected to solve the above-described problem, there is a case in which the glossiness of recorded images degrades and thus the qualities of the images degrade. In addition, even if a solvent that can suppress the occurrence of the agglomeration variation of the ink can be selected, there is a case in which the ejection stability of a recording head during recording degrades.